Hello everyone,
As you can see from my post count I an new here. I have recently become re-interested in my rifle. What I have is a M40A2 clone that I made myself. Well I guess I shouldn't say made myself since I did not chamber and fit the barrel. But I basically did everything else on it.
She started out as a left handed Remington 26 inch 700VS heavy barrel in 308. At the time I was very interested in sniping and decided to build myself a M40A2. One day while out hunting in Arizona I "accidentally" came across McMillan's factory and decided to stop in and have a look around. As it turned out there wasn't much to look at other then a very small display area with only a few stocks and a reception area. The person who came out to talk to me (whose name I can not remember) mentioned that they had a stock I might be interested in. So he showed me the woodland camo A-2 stock that my Rem700 now resides in. The price was more then right and I left McMillan with a new A-2 stock. As soon as I got back to CA from AZ I glass bedded the barreled action into my new A-2 stock. Next came the scope. She is a Premier Reticle Leopold Vari-X III 6.5-20x50 mil dot Long Range M1. I ordered Badger Ordinance scope base, mounts, and oversized bolt knob. I lapped the rings and installed the scope. I then took my bolt to a gunsmith to have them install the Badger knob. I also lapped the bolt and did some other minor work on the bolt and lugs so that everything was smooth as glass. I also had the trigger adjusted down to 2lbs. (That is the only part that I could have done myself but didn't. At the time I didn't have enough confidence to mess with the trigger and to this day I wish I would have done it myself) I'm sure there are other little things that I did to her that can not remember at this time. But if I remember I will edit this post to reflect everything that was done.
Next came siting her in. I tried a few different manufacturers to see what worked and what didn't. Well to my surprise she shot sub moa with Federal Match 168gr. I figured I would have to load to get decent groups. Since I was getting sub moa with factory loads I figured I'd try loading to see if I could squeeze out any more performance out of her. I worked up 5 loads and did the whole accuracy testing bit and so on and so on. Nothing was that much better then the factory gold medal match from Federal so I stuck with that load and called it a day. (it was more like a couple of months but who's counting)
So far she is sighted in and can hit a 16-24 inch metal plate out to 700 yards. (That is the longest distance that my local range can go to) I know the rifle can go well beyond the 700. I just don't have a place to be able to get my scope dialed in beyond the 700 yard mark.
Well enough about my rifle. Here is my questions. I have since picked up an interest in shooting again after about 5-7 years away from guns. And now I am interested in hunting for Coyote, Deer and mainly Pig. I would love to use my M40A2 for pig, but as you can imagine she is waaaaaay toooo heavy to be hunmpin up and down hills all day on hunts and stocks. So I need to either buy a lighter 308 (and buying a new gun is Never a bad thing) or I can find a way to use this amazing rig I have built. So I essentially need to lighten her up to make her more carry friendly.
What I am researching doing is either cutting the barrel down to 20 inches and/or fluting this barrel. In my research I have found that the 308 was basically designed for a 20 inch barrel and that cutting off the extra 6 inches wont totally destroy the accuracy that she has right now. (which is better then I could have ever hoped for) Now fluting I'm not so sure about
What I need to know is how much weight could I save by cutting off the extra 6 inches? And how much could I save by having the heavy barrel fluted? And my last questions is how will doing either or both of these things effect my accuracy?
Any and all help will be greatly appreciated and I thank you in advance!
As you can see from my post count I an new here. I have recently become re-interested in my rifle. What I have is a M40A2 clone that I made myself. Well I guess I shouldn't say made myself since I did not chamber and fit the barrel. But I basically did everything else on it.
She started out as a left handed Remington 26 inch 700VS heavy barrel in 308. At the time I was very interested in sniping and decided to build myself a M40A2. One day while out hunting in Arizona I "accidentally" came across McMillan's factory and decided to stop in and have a look around. As it turned out there wasn't much to look at other then a very small display area with only a few stocks and a reception area. The person who came out to talk to me (whose name I can not remember) mentioned that they had a stock I might be interested in. So he showed me the woodland camo A-2 stock that my Rem700 now resides in. The price was more then right and I left McMillan with a new A-2 stock. As soon as I got back to CA from AZ I glass bedded the barreled action into my new A-2 stock. Next came the scope. She is a Premier Reticle Leopold Vari-X III 6.5-20x50 mil dot Long Range M1. I ordered Badger Ordinance scope base, mounts, and oversized bolt knob. I lapped the rings and installed the scope. I then took my bolt to a gunsmith to have them install the Badger knob. I also lapped the bolt and did some other minor work on the bolt and lugs so that everything was smooth as glass. I also had the trigger adjusted down to 2lbs. (That is the only part that I could have done myself but didn't. At the time I didn't have enough confidence to mess with the trigger and to this day I wish I would have done it myself) I'm sure there are other little things that I did to her that can not remember at this time. But if I remember I will edit this post to reflect everything that was done.
Next came siting her in. I tried a few different manufacturers to see what worked and what didn't. Well to my surprise she shot sub moa with Federal Match 168gr. I figured I would have to load to get decent groups. Since I was getting sub moa with factory loads I figured I'd try loading to see if I could squeeze out any more performance out of her. I worked up 5 loads and did the whole accuracy testing bit and so on and so on. Nothing was that much better then the factory gold medal match from Federal so I stuck with that load and called it a day. (it was more like a couple of months but who's counting)
So far she is sighted in and can hit a 16-24 inch metal plate out to 700 yards. (That is the longest distance that my local range can go to) I know the rifle can go well beyond the 700. I just don't have a place to be able to get my scope dialed in beyond the 700 yard mark.
Well enough about my rifle. Here is my questions. I have since picked up an interest in shooting again after about 5-7 years away from guns. And now I am interested in hunting for Coyote, Deer and mainly Pig. I would love to use my M40A2 for pig, but as you can imagine she is waaaaaay toooo heavy to be hunmpin up and down hills all day on hunts and stocks. So I need to either buy a lighter 308 (and buying a new gun is Never a bad thing) or I can find a way to use this amazing rig I have built. So I essentially need to lighten her up to make her more carry friendly.
What I am researching doing is either cutting the barrel down to 20 inches and/or fluting this barrel. In my research I have found that the 308 was basically designed for a 20 inch barrel and that cutting off the extra 6 inches wont totally destroy the accuracy that she has right now. (which is better then I could have ever hoped for) Now fluting I'm not so sure about
What I need to know is how much weight could I save by cutting off the extra 6 inches? And how much could I save by having the heavy barrel fluted? And my last questions is how will doing either or both of these things effect my accuracy?
Any and all help will be greatly appreciated and I thank you in advance!
